Happy New Year!
May this be a sweet, amazing, healthy, happy, musical year for you and your family!
When I broke my foot a few weeks back I was well aware that God was being kind to me. First of all, it happened during that rare time when I didn't have to get on a plane for over a month. Secondly, when I immediately called the neighborhood podiatrist (it was 7:30pm) he said, "wow Sam, that's weird. I was just coming out of Pat's Restaurant and something told me to turn right and go back to the office.
I was playing kickball in the street with my kids. A typical lazy summer afternoon. I was trying to turn a double into a home run and was tearing around third base while Jesse tried to bean me with the ball. My foot went sideways and I broke my first bone ever in my entire, rowdy life. Now I have new appreciation for mobility and intensified sympathy for those on crutches and in wheelchairs.
It's going to be an interesting High Holidays. I already told the rabbi that I won't be carrying the Torah in the processional, nor will I attempt to make my traditional grand entrance in the rear of the synagogue for Hineni. Other than that, it's business as usual. As long as my wife can push me from our hotel up those La Jolla hills! Thanks to all of you for your prayers for my speedy healing. It's working, thank God!
I hope that my new essay below, Master of Return, supercharges your prayers this High Holidays. It's a long one...maybe print it out and bring it to the synagogue? There are lots of new stops on the tour calendar and to get you in the mood for the holidays, check out the video links on the right.
Thanks for reading and thanks even more for sharing it with your friends and letting me know if you enjoyed it. Shofar, shogood!
With love,
Sam
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Do You Own The Songs We Sing Volume Two?
Sam has just completed his 21st CD...the follow up to the ever popular Songs We Sing released in 2000.  Volume Two features twenty-eight lovingly recorded "greatest hits of the Jewish People" by Sam and his eight-piece band and an array of guest vocalists. This double album squeezed on one CD breathes new life into these classic "common denominator" hit songs that unite the Jewish world. Order it now!
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Now Booking The CHAI TOUR 2010/2011
The number, not the tea! Be a part of Sam's 18th year on the road! Ultimate weekends of Jewish celebration! Get your organization signed up on this special tour while the best dates are still available through December 2011! Click here for the concert options and click here for the full schedule; dates are added weekly.
Coming up:
La Jolla, CA
Los Angeles, CA
E. Brunswick, NJ
New Orleans, LA
St. Louis, MO
Miami, FL
Baltimore, MD
Howard County, MD
Princeton, NJ
Pittsburgh, PA
Scottsdale, AZ
Event programmers: Uplifting contemporary Jewish music brings all ages in your community together like nothing else. As always, we discount significantly for midweek shows and when Sam is already in your area. Seize the date!
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Master of Return
by Sam Glaser
This
is the season of reckoning. Back
to the drawing board. Press reset,
clear the cache, reformat the hard drive. It's time to step out of your busy life and figure out why you are
living it. See where you are
versus where you want to be and figure out what it's going to take to get
there. We call it t'shuva, or
return. Jews don't believe in
original sin. We believe in
original purity. Along the way we
get covered in road grime and once a year we pause to get back to that candy
apple red finish underneath.
One
important component of t'shuva is ownership. You have to figure out where you are falling short with God
and take responsibility. The other
eleven months of the year you can pass the buck. Now we take the fall. Don't blame your parents for not giving
you the right education or for their verbal abuse. Don't blame your rabbi for being too busy or for misleading
you. The dog ate your
tefillin? Folks, it's Judgment
Day. The judge knows your every
secret. Why not anticipate the prosecuting attorney's argument and face up to
your shortcomings?
As
my friend David Sacks said in his amazing weekly class that I frequent, God is
the great sit-com writer in the sky that wants feedback from us, the
actors. What do WE see as
important for our characters? How
is God doing in getting us to our goals, to realizing our potential? The dialog when you are in the
synagogue during the holidays is about helping God understand what you need in
your world. You have permission to
be chutzpadik. Ask for the moon! Not just that you want a job or a raise or a spouse, but that you want
to have a starring role in the saga of the perfection of the world, of tikkun
olam.
 I
am part of the Ba'al T'shuva (BT) movement. That means "master of return." A small trickle of young Jews started to become more
interested in their heritage in the 70's and it turned into a flood in the past
two decades. Countless
neighborhoods nationwide have been transformed by yuppies looking to create modern day shtetls with shuls, bakeries, restaurants and bookstores all within
walking distance. I'd like to
argue that this month we all become ba'alei t'shuva. It doesn't matter where you are or where you came from. This is the time to buckle down. To find a single mitzvah to add to your
life. To perform mitzvot you do
already with even more dedication.
There
are a few pitfalls to avoid in becoming a BT, even if it's just for the month
of Tishrei. The whole idea of
connecting with God requires humility, creating a space for God to dwell
inside. How ironic that some BTs feel that they themselves discovered God and Torah
and now live in the smug triumph of their accomplishment. Anyone less observant
is treif, anyone more observant is out of his or her mind. BTs can be infamous bridge burners. Some neophyte BTs are
quick to quote Rashi's comments on the biblical juxtaposition of honoring
parents and the Sabbath as the source that they won't honor parents who
desecrate Shabbat. I'm confident
that those who nurture filial bonds of love and reverence are far more likely
to bring "wayward" parents close.
The
antidote to this trap is gratitude, to look at gifts in your life with
laser-sharp focus and to be thankful to God for the small details. To recognize that our upbringing may
not have been perfect but it gave us the tools to get to where we are now. And that our present state is exactly
where we need to be or we wouldn't have traveled this perfectly orchestrated
path. God wants our whole
being. Our past and our
present. God lovingly arranged for
the circumstances of our lives and all of the challenges along the way to give
us a feeling of empowerment for "choosing life." And rather than perceiving a malicious Creator dolling out punishment
during the High Holidays, we must be grateful for the divine system of cause
and effect.
I
had the gift of a potent revelation this week. I was out at a great LA jazz club hearing some absolute
musical masters tearing it up. The
volume was more intense with every song and I had to beseech the bartender for
some earplugs.  At one point I
noticed that the keyboard player's amp was on fire. No one was doing anything. A timeless minute went by where my shock at the lack of
response turned into action. In
spite of my broken foot and crutches I leapt to the stage to pull his flaming
amp away from the thick red curtain that it was leaning on. I screamed to the waiter to get a fire
extinguisher. The owner of the club ran down to the stage to tackle me...he
assumed I was an overzealous fan.
The fire was put out, the keyboards were patched through the PA system
and the band never stopped playing.
However, they did segue into Fire by Jimi Hendrix.
After
the excitement I nursed my Corona and reflected: We cannot sit around and wait
for someone else to help us. Yes, you have to pray, to make God part of your team, but you
can't sit around and wait for the big break, you can't depend on anyone to make it happen for
you. You can't postpone the dream,
the vacation, the change in lifestyle. There is no easy way out. No free lunch. This is it. Want to lose weight or quit smoking? Cold turkey, baby. Want to connect to God and live a holy life? Get to a class, a Torah website, a Shabbas table. I can't just wait for the
phone to ring for that next gig or album client. I have to figure out what I want and get busy. And make an exhaustive list of goals
for myself and for the world when I meet the Master of the Universe on New
Years Eve.
The
other aspect of my revelation that night was in regard to gratitude,
specifically to my parents. They
may not have given their four boys a life of mitzvot, kashrut, Torah study and
the like. But they did raise a
family that was passionate about Israel, Jewish music and the Jewish
people. The more I think about it,
my parents were superheroes. They
gave us the freedom and courage to explore the world and the discipline never
to be "quitters." They raised us
colorblind: it was perfectly natural to love everyone, all races and
religions. The highest-ranking
executives in my father's garment company were Black, Hispanic, Filipino, or
Irish. This was totally normal for
us brothers; we treated them like
aunts and uncles. We also had no
bias in terms of economic standing, sexual preference, age. Poor, rich, young, old, all were
welcome in my household. They unleashed four adventurous, open-minded boys with a solid foundation of love, trust and common sense.
This
is the season to act on your gratitude. To express 
verbally your love for friends and relatives, to apologize
sincerely for your shortcomings. When we clear the air of the pain and suffering we inflict on others,
especially those closest to us, we are creating a more unified planet. Rosh Hashana is about making God
king. God can't be king unless God
has loyal, content subjects. Subjects that are filled with strife, hatred and dis-ease cannot
properly honor the King. Yom
Kippur gives us a clean slate with our re-coronated King. Now that we've taken care of making
amends with God's subjects, we can focus on those places where we've fallen
short in our observance of God's decrees. We have 613 commandments, not 613 suggestions. Perhaps mitzvot are
better understood as divine pathways or in the words of Shlomo Carlebach, God's
prayers for us. We're like a kid
coming back from a year abroad to a loving parent. It's all love and forgiveness. Thank God.
This
time of year we focus not only on God as loving parent but God as spouse. It's not about crime and
punishment. It's about the power
and beauty of our relationship, a relationship continually deepens and must be
celebrated. A relationship that
requires care, protection, fences. When we build a home with God, we avoid sin not because we are afraid of
the whip but because we couldn't imagine defacing our beautiful palace.
I'd
like to finish this essay with a great story. An executive with very little Jewish education was learning
with a rabbi. He had been pushed
by one of his peers to give it a try and now it was a high point in his
week. The weekly encounter with his
heritage gave him fodder to try on his family now that he insisted they be
together for Friday night dinner. One thing that bothered him was that the rabbi, who was clearly teaching
him, kept referring to their sessions as "learning together." The executive
called the rabbi on this one day: "We're not learning together, you are
teaching me! Why not call a spade
a spade?" "No, quite the
opposite," said the rabbi. "I
learn from your world of experience and you learn from mine. I don't know so much more than you do!" "What?" the executive replied, "don't
patronize me! I barely went to
Hebrew school and you are trained rabbi!" The rabbi responded: "Imagine you are in an Olympic-sized
swimming pool racing Michael Phelps. Who would win the race?" "Well, of course Phelps would destroy me!" said the executive. The rabbi responded, "Now picture the
two of you in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Who would win in a race to Los Angeles? You see, we're both in the middle of
the Pacific, you and I. In the
great world of Torah, the deepest ocean in the universe, we're even!"
My
dear readers, may you have a year of sustenance, health, love, wisdom and peace
of mind. May the world be a place
of peace, free from disease, disaster, cruelty and suffering. This is our time to tell the Director
what we think of the script. God
wants our input. We are not actors
or puppets. We are God's children,
God's chosen ones, partners for life. Don't limit your vision to a denomination, a movement,
a synagogue, an organization. This
time of year we have the awesome opportunity to pray together. In different buildings, different
countries but still together. On a lifeboat in a vast ocean. We are the
Jewish people. We are one. Like different fingers on one
hand. Connected, needing each
other. Humbly walking with our
loving Creator. Building a palace. Masters of return.
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New Videos for September!
Take Me as I Am...God judges us where we are. High Holiday inspired music from Presence.
Sukkot is coming! Time to get that sukkah out of storage and light it up! Sukkah's on Fire.
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SPECIAL NEWS BULLETIN:
Sam Does Simchas!
You want your wedding or Bar/Bat Mitzvah to ROCK! Sam specializes in customizing music for your event to ensure that it will be unforgettable! With top musicians, great vocals, pro sound and lights...there are few bands that can deliver the same impact nationwide. The band draws upon the deepest repertoire in the Jewish world combined with  authentic rock, jazz, motown, disco and standards. Many clients opt to supplement their private event with a Sam Glaser concert or Shabbaton for the whole community. Whatever your needs, visit the Sam Glaser Orchestra site to learn more.
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Craig Taubman is at it again...getting the Jews of LA together for amazing celebrations. Don't miss this great day of food, fun and entertainment in the hills of Malibu with my band, Moshav, Dan Nichols, Josh Nelson and many others! |
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Thank you!
Thank you for reading, for listening, for your support and friendship.
Glaser MusicWorks
800-972-6694
Outside of the US 310-204-6111
sam@samglaser.com
1941 Livonia Av.
Los Angeles, California 90034
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